ghul
Enchanter
Posts: 272
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Post by ghul on May 30, 2009 13:31:15 GMT -5
Just picked up The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson for 75 cents at my local used book shop. It is one of the Appendix N novels I've never read. Although I'm not a big Boris fan, I do like his cover art. Anyway, have any of you fellow Doomsdayers ever read this? Here is a link that shows the cover: www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/poul-anderson/broken-sword.htmI also see that it has made the cut for the Fantasy Masterworks series.
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Falconer
Enchanter
Knight Bachelor
AD&D, Middle-earth, Star Trek TOS
Posts: 330
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Post by Falconer on May 30, 2009 13:50:42 GMT -5
Yeah, The Broken Sword is great! If I recall correctly, it came out after The Hobbit but before The Lord of the Rings, so he’s definitely exploring a lot of the same ideas as Tolkien did, but freely going in a different direction because it’s before the genre was so nailed down by Tolkien and his imitators. I think this was the first story to put things in terms of Law vs Chaos. Gods vs giants and elves vs trolls, but ultimately it becomes Christianity vs Paganism. He has a really neat way of bringing all mythologies together to coexist.
I have the Fantasy Masterworks edition, which reprints the original version of the tale. It has a very raw Norse feel. There’s an awesome scene where a witch summons Satan, which in later editions he rewrote it to be Odin. Either way, it’s a great D&D source that is a major influence on me.
I like it better than Three Hearts and Three Lions which is kind of bland and tame in comparison, actually!
My favorite, though, is The High Crusade—a REALLY fun romp!
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GT
Wizard
Duke of Indiana, Knight Commander
Posts: 2,032
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Post by GT on May 30, 2009 14:14:29 GMT -5
Well, the Broken Sword was Anderson's retelling of the Tyrfing saga from Norse myths, with embellishments. I actually placed a version of Tyrfing in my AD&D campaign as a Chaotic Evil sort of counter to Fragarach. I placed it in the lowest level of T1-4 (the EEG level, I believe... nobody has claimed it yet). I still like Three Hearts and Three Lions best, maybe just because you can see all of the D&D influences Gary pulled out of it. As for the High Crusade, all I have to say is "S3"... ;D
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Post by grodog on May 30, 2009 22:20:46 GMT -5
I liked The Broken Sword (which I read for the first time within the past 3 years or so) much better than I did Three Hearts and Three Lions (but I haven't read that for at least 15-20 years, so I really should re-read it).
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